I have been
the luckiest person in the world this last year having the opportunity to live
and work in Vihiga. I can’t believe I arrived there a year ago today, to a
crazy storm, a blackout and a welcome (and lots of cockroaches!!), and now I’m
leaving. I’m leaving a place I have been able to call home. And will continue
to call home...
I spent the
first 8 weeks hating living in Vihiga. The cultural shock was far more than I
had anticipated, the type of patients I was working with were far more disabled
than anyone I had worked with previously and I kept worrying that I wasn’t cut
out for this challenge I had spent years waiting for the opportunity to do...
Thankfully
that all changed, and I fell more in love with Vihiga: the people and the work.
Plus, I developed a wonderful social life which definitely helped me cope with
all the stress of working in such a different environment.
Anyway, over
this last year of writing blogs I have written about a few specific people (as
well as moaned a lot) so I thought I should write an update about them all:
Tony – the little
boy that had been abandoned by his parents and now his grandmother is looking
after him. He is deaf and was so malnourished when I met him. After writing
about him on here, a dear friend of mine offered to sponsor him through school.
He started at Chekombero School for Hearing Impaired last year and when I saw
him in March he was a happy, healthy little boy. The school had worked wonders
at making him feel like he belonged somewhere and that people cared for him.
Unfortunately,
I went back to visit Tony 2 weeks ago and found him underweight, with a limp
and terrified of people again. Not to mention the beating of other children
with stones... I found out that school had noticed that anytime he comes back
from a holiday of being home with his grandmother and family, he has regressed.
This time the limp was unexplainable. I decided enough was enough and arranged
a meeting with the Children’s Officer and Education Dept. to try and decide how
he can be looked after during the school holidays without being subjected to
abuse and neglect. It was the most frustrating meeting of my life, topped off
by the children’s officer turning around to Wellington and asking him if he
knew of any orphanages around the area.... errrm sir, isn’t that your job??!!!
Nothing was fully resolved, but thankfully he has a strong headmistress behind
him who I know will do as much as she can to support him... I hope to be kept
updated on how he’s doing whilst I’m away.
Maurine: the
wonderful Miracle – continues to go from strength to strength. She’s a
wonderfully charismatic and full of personality 10 year old who’s a huge chatterbox.
I love it when she comes to clinic with her beautiful smile, greets me with a ‘hello
Rachael’ and moans about the other children being ‘babies’ for crying, when she
never cries when she’s having her physio! I do remind her that she used to... J
She should
be receiving free surgery on her Achilles from Nyabondo Hospital in July that
will mean she will (hopefully) be able to walk again, and then she’ll start
school in January. To this day, no one knows how she’s made such a recovery,
but this is her picture. Isn’t she a stunner?!
Marion:
FINALLY had her cleft palate repair surgery. She came in last week for me to
check up on the repair, she’s already becoming more confident.. Always so
serious, but when she came in, she had a huge grin on her face. Already her
speech has improved, I have given her Mum some ‘top tips’ on encouraging speech
sound production for sounds made on her palate, and I’m confident with those
she’ll be much clearer in speech soon. I’m so happy for her, it’s been a long
wait.
Schools:
Madzu: the
refurbishment has been completed and they’re really happy with the new
furniture which was funded through Liz McConachy and some of the money I had
raised before coming out. I had a final meeting with the teachers of the unit
to discuss the work we’d done together and how they were going to continue
without SLT input and we went through all the individual students and the
progress they have made. I was really impressed by what the teachers were saying about the progress of the children, I hope they keep up the fantastic work.
Kegoye:
Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to go into Kegoye since Easter. I don’t
know where the time went, however, I walked into the unit and my mind was
blown!! They have taken on board all of the things I’ve discussed with them on
ways to make learning as visual and accessible as they can with their limited
resources. They’ve broken down the goals we set into long term and short term
ones, with step by step work on how to achieve them and records of when they
are meeting the goals. The teachers here are really special, I have been so
blessed to work with them and have learnt a lot more from them that I can put
down on here...
Where your
money went:
Before I
came to Kenya (and since) I was amazed by the generosity of my family and
friends in making donations to support projects I came across out here. It’s
been a huge learning curve on how to give money to people without reinforcing
the ‘white lady coming to town and handing out cash’ image a lot of Kenyans
have. I have learnt that sustainability is key, but at the same time, sometimes
you can’t help but fall in love with a child/person and want to support them.
-
3
cleft lip and palate repair surgeries:
Marion – age 9: failed
trip to Nairobi to find out that the surgery had been cancelled. Successful
trip to Nyabondo in May 2012.
17 year old boy – his family
never knew surgery was an option.
15 year old school girl –
she used to hide her mouth whenever she was out in public/at school. Now she
has a smile she doesn't have to hide.
-
Paid
for Wellington Manyola to attend a session of university to get his degree in
special education. Other family and friends have since offered to pay for more
of his sessions, meaning that he doesn’t have to worry about the financial
costs of university until August 2013. He will now be able to continue his work
advocating for children with special needs rights, without fear of losing his
job because he doesn’t have a degree.
-
Part
paid for the refurbishment of Madzu Primary School Special Unit. The children
were sitting on the floor as the mainstream school took priority of having the furniture
because the children in the unit aren’t really ‘learning things’...
-
Built
wheelchair accessible ramps at Ikumba Primary School now they are an inclusive
school (Newton attends there and is doing SO well...).
-
The
leftover cash will be given to the next volunteer who arrives at the end of September
to be used for the patients who she will see at Vihiga District Hospital. David
and I have set up a clinic there, and it’s now the first hospital in Kenya
(that isn’t private) that offers SLT. However, Yellow House offers a free
service, but the hospital charges over 5s for any service, so the money will be
given to the volunteer to pay for approximately 100 sessions of SLT at the
hospital.
So that’s it. That’s my story. This year has taught me so
much about my career and myself. I have loved every challenge and opportunity I
have had out here. I can’t wait for Round 2 next year...
Thanks for reading this blog, and for all the words of
encouragement you’ve sent me over the year. It’s helped in a way you couldn’t even
imagine. Until next time...
